Description
The making of pictures has a history going back perhaps 100,000 years to an African shell used as a paint palette. Two-thirds of it is irrevocably lost, since the earliest images known to us are from about 40,000 years ago. But what a 40,000 years, explored here by David Hockney and Martin Gayford in a brilliantly original book. They privilege no medium, or period, or style, but instead, in 16 chapters, discuss how and why pictures have been made, and insistently link 'art' to human skills and human needs.
Each chapter addresses an important question: What happens when we try to express reality in two dimensions? Why is the 'Mona Lisa' beautiful and why are shadows so rarely found in Chinese, Japanese and Persian painting? Why are optical projections always going to be more beautiful than HD television can ever be? How have the makers of images depicted movement? What makes marks on a flat surface interesting?
Energized by two lifetimes of looking at pictures, combined with a great artist's 70-year experience of experimentation as he makes them, this profoundly moving and enlightening volume will be the art book of the decade.
David Hockney and Martin Gayford discuss the 30,000-year-old history of pictures in one brilliantly original volume
About the Author
David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He has produced work in almost every medium - painting, drawing, stage design, photography and printmaking - and has stretched the boundaries of all of them. Born in Bradford, England, in 1937, Hockney attended art school in London before moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s. There, he painted his famous swimming pool paintings. In a 2011 poll of more than 1,000 British artists, Hockney was voted the most influential British artist of all time. He continues to create and exhibit art. Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator and the author of acclaimed books on Van Gogh, Constable and Michelangelo. He is the author of many books, including Man with a Blue Scarf, Rendez-vous with Art, (with Philippe de Montebello), A Bigger Message, Modernists & Mavericks, A History of Pictures (with David Hockney), The Pursuit of Art and Spring Cannot be Cancelled, all published by Thames & Hudson.
Reviews
'I won't read a more interesting book all year ... utterly fascinating' - A. N. Wilson, Sunday Times
'Hockney asks big questions about the nature of picture-making and the relationship between painters and photography in a way that no other contemporary artist seems to do ... Enormously good-humoured and entertaining ... On almost every page, there is an interesting provocation' - Andrew Marr, New Statesman
'An eloquent conversational testimony to the vividness of life lived through intelligent looking. You will see Caravaggio and Citizen Kane with fresh eyes' - Daily Telegraph
'A magic flight of a book ... It's a measure of Hockney's vividness of perception that he can always put a cap on Gayford's knowledge ... Fabulous!' - Clive James, Guardian
'Crisps up perceptions and help readers to look anew' - The Times
Book Information
ISBN 9780500239490
Author David Hockney
Format Hardback
Page Count 360
Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
Publisher Thames & Hudson Ltd
Weight(grams) 2040g
Each chapter addresses an important question: What happens when we try to express reality in two dimensions? Why is the 'Mona Lisa' beautiful and why are shadows so rarely found in Chinese, Japanese and Persian painting? Why are optical projections always going to be more beautiful than HD television can ever be? How have the makers of images depicted movement? What makes marks on a flat surface interesting?
Energized by two lifetimes of looking at pictures, combined with a great artist's 70-year experience of experimentation as he makes them, this profoundly moving and enlightening volume will be the art book of the decade.
David Hockney and Martin Gayford discuss the 30,000-year-old history of pictures in one brilliantly original volume
About the Author
David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He has produced work in almost every medium - painting, drawing, stage design, photography and printmaking - and has stretched the boundaries of all of them. Born in Bradford, England, in 1937, Hockney attended art school in London before moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s. There, he painted his famous swimming pool paintings. In a 2011 poll of more than 1,000 British artists, Hockney was voted the most influential British artist of all time. He continues to create and exhibit art. Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator and the author of acclaimed books on Van Gogh, Constable and Michelangelo. He is the author of many books, including Man with a Blue Scarf, Rendez-vous with Art, (with Philippe de Montebello), A Bigger Message, Modernists & Mavericks, A History of Pictures (with David Hockney), The Pursuit of Art and Spring Cannot be Cancelled, all published by Thames & Hudson.
Reviews
'I won't read a more interesting book all year ... utterly fascinating' - A. N. Wilson, Sunday Times
'Hockney asks big questions about the nature of picture-making and the relationship between painters and photography in a way that no other contemporary artist seems to do ... Enormously good-humoured and entertaining ... On almost every page, there is an interesting provocation' - Andrew Marr, New Statesman
'An eloquent conversational testimony to the vividness of life lived through intelligent looking. You will see Caravaggio and Citizen Kane with fresh eyes' - Daily Telegraph
'A magic flight of a book ... It's a measure of Hockney's vividness of perception that he can always put a cap on Gayford's knowledge ... Fabulous!' - Clive James, Guardian
'Crisps up perceptions and help readers to look anew' - The Times
Book Information
ISBN 9780500239490
Author David Hockney
Format Hardback
Page Count 360
Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
Publisher Thames & Hudson Ltd
Weight(grams) 2040g
